October 28, 2011

David Conrad On Occupy Pittsburgh

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to interview David Conrad for a blog post I wrote for the PSO. He was performing a Pittsburghese re-write (courtesy of the P-G's Peter Leo) of Peter and the Wolf by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev.

Check Conrad's page at the IMDB to see what he's done. Did you know he's been in TV productions with:

During the chat about the PSO, Prokofiev and the wonders of 19th Russian literature I learned that Conrad's a bit of a political nerd. So yesterday I wondered as I wandered through Mellon Green dahn-tahn, what if anything David Conrad thought about Occupy Pittsburgh.

What he had to say was certainly interesting. As for an overall frame:

I think you only make trains stop, sometimes, by laying in front of them. The financial might of this country is such that only drastic measures - or at least so we might see them as such now- will change its employment.

And some history:

What strikes me most is that the popular press bandies about words like "radical" and "socialist" for behavior that 40 years ago would have been labeled tame. The Freedom marchers of the 60's, the Labor activists of the 30's and the Suffragists of the teens would be amazed to see what restrictions have been placed upon general human rights- citizens rights- in our era. We've fallen a long way since the Reagan Era pushed us off the cliff. We've allowed a culture of fear to permit a habit of oppression and now what is at the very heart of American behavior; disagreement, protest and general assembly is often challenged and almost constantly disabused.

Members of the three movements I mentioned above risked their lives, literally, for beliefs and rights we now all hold to be self-evident and they did so for a small proportion of the population. They were, African Americans, Union members and voting age women, a minority. I don't in any way mean to belittle their efforts or the fact that what they achieved indirectly improved all of our lives. What I mean to point out is that the misuse of financial power in the current global economy hurts EVERYONE except for a very small minority. We are ALL suffering because a system exists outside of the rule of law.

And he ends with:

And I imagine the more the "occupiers" are beaten down the harder they'll fight back. I hope so.